An investigation by the Chicago Tribune examined allegations of inappropriate behavior by Willow Creek Senior Pastor Bill Hybels, documented through interviews with current and former church members, elders and employees, as well as hundreds of emails and internal records.

A council of Christian leaders tapped to review last year’s tumultuous exit of Bill Hybels from Willow Creek Community Church has concluded that claims of “sexually inappropriate words and actions” against the well-known pastor are credible, and that Hybels should have faced discipline if he had not resigned.

“The credibility of the allegations is not based on any one accusation or accuser but on the collective testimony and context of the allegations,” the council report stated in its list of conclusions, according to a copy provided to the Tribune by the church. “The credibility of the allegations would have been sufficient for Willow Creek Community Church to initiate disciplinary action if Bill Hybels had continued as pastor of the church.”

The report from the council, calling itself the Independent Advisory Group, also concluded that Hybels “verbally and emotionally intimidated both female and male employees.”

Hybels, who founded the evangelical church based in South Barrington, could not immediately be reached for comment. The report did note that he has “publicly and privately denied the credibility” of the allegations.

The outside panel’s review, delivered Thursday, was announced by Willow Creek leaders last summer and was said to have been funded by an anonymous outside donor to ensure it would be an unbiased look at what happened at one of the country’s largest Christian churches.

Church leaders initially stood by Hybels last spring, but that support deteriorated as additional accounts of alleged inappropriate behavior surfaced.

A former executive assistant to Hybels told The New York Times she had been sexually harassed and groped by Hybels over two years. The new review raised no new allegations since those detailed in that story.

The controversy and Willow Creek’s slow response rocked the congregation, eventually triggering the resignations of the church’s two leading pastors and its entire board of elders.

The council’s report Thursday also was critical of how those leaders reacted as the crisis at Willow Creek unfolded, saying they failed to rein Hybels in.

“Over multiple decades, the Willow Creek Community Church boards were unable to provide effective oversight of Bill Hybels,” the report states, also including the observation that church leadership was not prepared to handle the cascading events it faced last year.

Willow Creek issued a statement as the report was released.

“While we cannot change the events of the past, we grieve what has happened, ask for forgiveness, and commit ourselves to pursuing healing and reconciliation,” the church posted on its website, attributing the statement to its new nine-member elder board. “Thank you for your prayers and faithful engagement in the life and ministry of our church during this season.”

The alleged behavior reported on by the Tribune included suggestive comments, extended hugs, an unwanted kiss and invitations to hotel rooms. It also included an allegation of a prolonged consensual affair with a married woman who later recanted that claim to church leaders.

The Tribune found that internal church reviews of Hybels and the allegations repeatedly cleared him of wrongdoing, and Willow Creek leaders initially stood by those prior inquiries.

The IAG report indicated its members interviewed Hybels and also spoke to every woman who made direct accusations against him. The group included Margaret Diddams, the provost of Wheaton College; Gary Walter, past president of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago; Jo Anne Lyon, of Wesleyan Church in Indianapolis; and Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals in Washington, D.C.

At the peak of its reach, Willow Creek welcomed some 25,000 congregants to its main campus and seven satellite churches. It also had spread its brand of Christian worship to 11,000 churches in 130 countries.

Its Global Leadership Summit has been one of the most influential conferences in the Christian world for more than two decades, though many dozens of churches declined to broadcast it in 2018 during the Hybels fallout.

Among the other recommendations put forward by the group Thursday were that Willow Creek create a way to offer financial assistance for counseling for anyone affected by Hybels, as well as maintain an outside hotline for people to make further misconduct reports. Under a heading it called “closing words,” the group commented on its work.

“We encountered a range of emotions and attitudes including brokenness, hurt, fear, transparency, trust, faith and hope,” the group members wrote. “We heard a catalog of opinions that were spoken with conviction and passion but also with grace. Clear and strong faith in God and service to Jesus Christ were repeatedly declared and evidenced by those interviewed. They displayed a pervasive sense that God’s redemptive purposes will prevail.”

The Willow Creek Association, which runs the church’s Global Leadership Network and joined the church in commissioning the report, also issued a statement Thursday: “We realize we can learn from our past and will not be perfect moving forward. We appreciate the very real challenges identified that are facing our organization, and believe they can inform and improve the efforts and impact of the Global Leadership Summit into the future.”